A fine is a penalty for breaking the law (perhaps by committing a criminal offence or breaching a regulation, such as the regulations governing what you can and can't do on railway property). A fine is the penalty of having to pay money rather than having to go to jail, promise to be of good behaviour (under a bond) or do unpaid community work.

Fines can be the penalty set by a court or be the penalty set through a 'penalty notice' or 'infringement notice' (where the penalty is imposed 'on the spot') that is issued by an authorised officer (including some local government employees and some railway employees, for example). Where a fine is imposed on you through a penalty or infringement notice, you can choose either to pay the amount of the fine, or not to pay it and go to court to say why you shouldn't have to pay the fine.

Don't ignore fines: they don't go away. If you ignore a fine, you may end up in more trouble and it is very likely to cost you more.

If you think the fine should not have been given to you, you can challenge it.

The first way to challenge a fine is to write to or contact the organisation that issued it, for example, NSW TrainLink or the local council. If you are going to do this you should get onto it quickly because delays might result in the fine being taken to the next stage and you facing a bigger penalty.

The second way to challenge a fine is by going to court. If you want to challenge the fine in court you need to indicate this on the penalty notice. There is information (usually on the back of the penalty notice) about what to do if you want to challenge the fine in court.

If you can't afford to pay a court-imposed fine all at once, but are willing and able to pay it off in smaller amounts you can ask for time to pay. If you have been given time to pay a fine by a Local Court but still can't pay on time, you can ask for an extension of the time to pay; click here for more details.

If you don't ask for further time to pay and then don't pay the fine within the time allowed, or don't make any instalment payments required, the fine will be referred to the State Debt Recovery Office (SDRO) for further action.

The SDRO is the NSW Government office that collects outstanding fines of all kinds, including fines for transport fare evasion, and court-imposed fines.

When you get a fine, the SDRO will first send you what is called a penalty notice. If you don't reply or don't pay the fine the SDRO will send a reminder. If you ignore this reminder notice, extra financial penalties will then be added. If you still don't pay the fine, the penalties increase and it can also lead to the suspension of your driver's licence, cancellation of your car registration, and in some cases your property may be taken.

There are options for you if you can't afford to pay a fine, including an overdue fine. To find out more, click here.

If you can't pay the full amount of the fine or if you have some other problems (such as medical or serious financial problems), there are a few options available to you:

If you can't afford to pay the fine, you can apply to the State Debt Recovery Office (SDRO) for time to pay. If your application is approved this means that the SDRO will let you pay-off your fine(s) in instalments that you can afford. If you want to apply for time to pay, you can usually do this by phone or by completing the Payment by instalments – Individuals form.

To apply by phone to pay by instalments, contact the SDRO between 8.00 am and 5.30 pm Monday to Friday on 1300 655 805* or (02) 6354 7255 for teletypewriter (TTY) users.

If you have serious medical, financial or other hardship problems, or you have a disability, or were homeless or mentally unwell at the time that you got the fine(s), you may be able to apply to the SDRO to SDRO to have enforcement action postponed. If successful, the SDRO will stop further enforcement action for five years. This means that you will not have to pay the Enforcement Order fine for five years. After five years the SDRO will contact you to see if your circumstances have improved. If not, the SDRO will consider an application to write off the Enforcement Order debt. For this to happen you will need to prove to the SDRO that because your financial, medical and/or domestic problems you either cannot pay the fine or doing so will result in you or your immediate family suffering additional and unreasonable hardship and that this situation is unlikely to improve for the forseeable future. Usually you have to get medical reports and other information about your situation to support your application. You also need to fill out a Statement of Financial Circumstances form.

If you apply to have your fines written off, and the Director of the SDRO says no, you can apply to the Hardship Review Board for a review the decision.Click here to access the Application for Review of a State Debt Recovery Office Decision - forms.

Work and Development Orders. Work and Development Orders allow certain people, including people with mental health conditions, who have unpaid fines to pay off their debt through unpaid work or through doing courses or treatment programs.

The Work and Development Order scheme has been set up to allow people who face particular disadvantages to deal with unpaid fines without having to pay them off with money.

Not everyone is able to deal with their fines in this way. In order to be eligible for the scheme you must:

have a mental health condition, an intellectual disability or a cognitive impairment; or

be homeless; or

be experiencing acute economic hardship.

If you fit into one of these categories you can apply to the SDRO for a Work and Development Order. Your application must be supported by an organisation that is approved by the SDRO or by a qualified health professional (such as a doctor or a psychologist).

To complete a Work and Development Order, you can:

do unpaid work for an approved organisation

receive medical or mental health treatment

do educational, vocational or life skills courses

attend financial or other counselling

receive drug or alcohol treatment and rehabilitation

participate in a mentoring program (if you are under 25)

Contact the SDRO hotline on 1300 478 879* to ask for an application form and to find your closest approved organisation that can help you to complete and lodge the application or click here to access a Work and Development Order form together with information about Work and Development Orders.

*Remember, mobile phone calls to freecall numbers (numbers starting with 1800) and to Local call numbers (numbers starting with 13 or 1300) are charged to the caller at the usual mobile rate.

Corrections NSW is approved to administer WDOs. Inmates with a mental illness; an intellectual disability or cognitive impairment; a serious addiction to drugs, alcohol or volatile substance; or were experiencing homelessness or acute financial hardship prior to coming in to custody may register with the scheme.

Inmates who meet one or more of these criteria are able to engage in programs to clear their fines registered with the SDRO. They can count satisfactory participation in AOD treatment, financial or other counselling and educational/vocational or life skills courses towards meeting their WDO requirements.

If you have a debt and would like to apply for a WDO speak to the the Education and Programs staff in your correctional centre.

DISCLAIMER

The legal and other information contained in this Section is up to date to 2 August 2015.

This Manual only refers to the law and practices applying to the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) - unless it states otherwise.

MHCC does not guarantee the accuracy nor is responsible for the content or the currency of the content of external documents and websites linked to this Manual.